Client: Stirling Council, Sustrans, Network Rail

Contractor: Stirling Council, Luddon Construction, HQG

Location type: Cycleway and sustainable transport route

Completion: October 2023

Background
Walk Cycle Live Stirling’ is a project that aims to transform the city of Stirling into a more sustainable vibrant and accessible place for everyone to live work and visit. The objective was to create two key transport corridors to make it easier for people to walk and cycle into the city centre and encourage an increase in the number of shorter journeys made on foot and by bike. This would have a number of benefits including helping to reduce traffic congestion, improve both air quality and public health and create a better living and working environment. This will help to connect communities, businesses and higher education institutes throughout Stirling with active travel for the first time.

The challenge
New paved surfacing was required for the first phase of this scheme, the planned redevelopment of Stirling’s City centre around Goosecroft Road and Wallace Street linking to the cities main railway station, part of a 6.5km transport corridor. Stirling is popular tourist location with a distinctive character and wealth of history. Rather than default to conventional black asphalt surfacing the client was keen to explore alternative materials that would complement and enhance this historic location. The new surface needed to be durable and low-maintenance and allow cycling in all seasons and weather conditions. It also needed to provide clear demarcation at road junctions from the main highway to keep cyclists separate and safe from other road users.

Our solution
After being shown images and samples of ULTICOLOUR Tarmac’s range of bright, durable coloured asphalts they felt that this would be a far better match. The new surface would need to deliver long term value and withstand daily use by pedestrian and vehicle traffic including buses and municipal refuse and recycling vehicles. ULTICOLOUR coloured asphalts are BBA HAPAS accredited for use on UK highways as a thin surface course and have been used on UK roads for over 20 years. ULTICOLOUR asphalts use a clear binder and colour matched aggregates to produce brighter coloured asphalts that provide effective demarcation on footpaths, cycle lanes and highways. They have demonstrated impressive durability and long-term performance, even on heavily trafficked routes like busy bus lanes. This includes a busy bus lane in Birmingham that was still performing well 18 years after it was originally installed.